Tasty, Healthy Soups!
If you are looking for something tasty, healthy and nutritious, then I have just got the perfect stall to recommend you! Over at Smith Street Food Centre, in the yellow section, there are two stalls side by side. They are actually the same stall, but serving two different dishes. One sells herbal urn-baked soups while the other serves steamed seafood!
Double Boiled Soups Vs Urn Baked Soups
Most double-boiled soups are prepared by gently steaming covered bowls, allowing the ingredients to slowly release their essence without significant evaporation.
Urn-baked soups, however, work on a different principle. Cooked inside a charcoal-heated urn, the temperatures are much higher. Each pot must be tightly sealed to prevent the liquid from escaping. What results is a broth that feels noticeably richer and more concentrated. That’s because everything good inside the pot had nowhere else to go but into the broth!
I still remember the first time I encountered this style of cooking. It was many years ago when I wrote about Earth Jar Treasure in Sin Ming. Back in 2007, it felt like a novelty. Rows of ancient-looking urns were not something you see every day!
But the idea itself is anything but new. Cantonese slow-cooked soups trace their roots back some 3,500 years. The emphasis has always been on drawing out the essence of the ingredients through time and heat. In parts of Guangdong, it is still common to see eateries displaying neat rows of dark, glossy jars, each one quietly brewing pots of nutritious soups within.
The concept never quite took off in Singapore the way lao huo tang did. Practically speaking, it is far easier to set up stainless steel pots over induction cookers than to manage charcoal-heated urns. This is especially so in a shopping mall setting. That’s why it is quite heartening to see Bao Zhong Bao still serving these urn-baked soups in a humble food centre!
Black Chicken Soup
There is nothing that signals nourishment quite like a bowl of black chicken herbal soup. The dark, almost inky broth carries the essence of silkie chicken, enriched with red dates and a medley of Chinese herbs that lend it a gentle sweetness and earthy depth.
The chicken is tender but not falling apart, a sign that it has been slowly coaxed rather than aggressively boiled. Each sip feels rich yet clean. It’s the kind of comforting, restorative soup that you instinctively reach for when you need a little boost. 4.5/5
Pig’s Tail Black Bean Soup
The best selling soup at the stall is their black bean soup. The owner tells me that black bean soup is not easy to find because the beans take a long time to cook. It requires hours of simmering to coax out their deep, nutty flavour and soften their stubborn skins.
These beans are incredibly rich in anthocyanins, the same heart-healthy antioxidants that give blueberries their “superfood” status. They are packed with essential minerals like magnesium and iron too. In fact, some studies suggest that a half-cup of black beans can contain nearly double the antioxidant power of an equivalent serving of blueberries. This soup sure makes a potent shield against inflammation.
The stall offers both a pork rib and a pig tail version. I highly recommend the pig tail for those looking to nourish their skin and joints as it is full of collagen. During the long simmering process, the connective tissue in the tail breaks down into a rich, silky gelatin, giving the broth a luscious mouthfeel! Oh, and the soup is delicious and very easy to drink! 4.5/5
Slowly Baked for 5 Hours!
The owner of Bao Zhong Bao tells me that his day begins at 3am, when he arrives at the stall to start preparing the soups. Each little clay pot is filled with ingredients, sealed tight, and placed into the charcoal fired urn, where they will cook for the next few hours and are only ready at 9am.
He started the business more than a decade ago with a single stall selling urn-baked soups in another part of the food centre. When the current two stalls became available, he decided to relocate and expand, turning the second stall into a steamed seafood concept.
Fresh Steamed Seafood
Steamed Prawns
I must admit, I really wasn’t expecting too much from the steamed seafood at first. After all, when you order steamed seafood at a typical zi char stall, it usually sets you back $20 to $30. Here, most dishes are priced at just $10 to $12. Naturally, the question on my mind was, how good can it be?
We were genuinely surprised when the steamed prawns arrived. For $12, we were served four large, impressive prawns that looked more like wild caught sea prawns than the usual farmed variety.
The flesh was firm and sweet, exactly what you want from fresh prawns. The owner later confirmed that he sources all his seafood fresh from the market every day. He doesn’t use frozen seafood or added msg and salt in his dishes. Although I did spot a few bottles of soy sauces and other sauces on the display shelf.
That last detail matters more than people realise. Frozen seafood is not necessarily bad, but nothing beats fresh seafood that is steamed simply.
The chilli sauce that he layers over the seafood is also addictively tasty. The chilli isn’t numbing hot, and there are bits of crispy shallots, garlic and dried prawns that add many layers of flavour, texture and umami. One of the best I have come across, and it pairs brilliantly with the seafood. 4.5/5
Steamed Sotong
The steamed squid were also excellent. For $10, the portion was very generous, almost what I would have paid buying them raw from the market. And they were cooked just right, perfectly tender and bouncy, not rubbery at all.
We didn’t try the fish this time, but I spotted a threadfin fillet sitting in the ice box and asked how much you get for the $12 portion.
I can gauge this pretty well because I buy threadfin at the market regularly. $12 usually gets me only a one and a half inch fillet. So I can tell you that for the same price, it is actually cheaper to just eat at the stall than to buy the fish and cook it yourself!
Conclusion
Smith Street Food Centre never fails to surprise me with its hidden gems. This is certainly another one that is still very much under the radar. The urn baked soups and steamed seafood were both exciting discoveries, and best of all, the food is not only tasty but also healthy and nutritious.
Go for the soup and be sure to order some seafood to go with it. It’s the kind of stall you would visit every week if you are working nearby!
